T5 Labs claims that Gaikai is infringing upon its patent for "Sharing a Graphical Processing Unit Between a Plurality of Programs."

In a complaint filed last week, Delaware-based T5 Labs claimed that cloud gaming company Gaikai is infringing upon U.S. Patent No. 8,203,568, otherwise known as "the '568 patent," to which it holds the exclusive license. Gaikai not only "actively, knowingly and intentionally induces infringement" of the patent, according to the claim, but also "contributed to the infringement by others, including the end users of Gaikai's GPU cloud" by continuing to offer its product even though it is aware of the infringement upon T5's patent.

The suit claims that Gaikai has been issued written notice of its infringement, which it has presumably disregarded, and that as a result, "T5 has suffered and will continue to suffer damages in an amount to be proved at trial." As usual, the suit seeks damages, interest, costs, legal fees and whatever else the court deems just and proper.

The complaint echoes T5's run-in with Gaikai competitor OnLive in February 2011, when it claimed it had been issued a patent that predated the one held by OnLive and said it was "considering its legal rights" and whether to pursue legal action against the company. OnLive recently collapsed under the weight of its debts, but Gaikai was acquired by Sony in July for a whopping $380 million.

t5 labs has no press articles, no existing products, and as far as I can tell, nothing beyond just a concept stage. Yet they filed the patent 10 years ago, and have so far managed to do.... NOTHING. The one and only product of this company doesn't even exist.This is just wrong. Hell, 6 years ago I foresaw how it would be possible to just relay the gaming process from a remote server to a desktop, providing that the internet connections of the future would be able to handle it properly. Apparently, using that idea beyond any point than my own imagination would then be "patent infringement" because somewhere and someone thought of a slightly similar idea, yet never did a shit about it.

How is sharing a GPU between multiple programs a patentable idea. What stops people from just getting up in the morning and going "I know...I'll patent travel that takes place at close to or the speed of light!" or "Elevators that go diagonally" or "A device that allows travel through time at an altered rate" or "A system whereby the user play a videogame without a controller or motion sensors", and cripple the future of humanity? That is a f***ing troll patent if ever I've seen one. You should have to actually have a product (at least a hypothetical one) before patenting a concept.

LoL, this is stupid ridiculous. That is like Target suing Walmart because they also have checkout counters. Or Dominoes for Pizza Hut for selling Pizza. This could potentially apply to any game that is run outside an end users system, such as any F2P games such as League of Legends.

Edit: I love the use of "knowingly" in the paper work. They most likely didn't know because the idea is ridiculous and would never be researched. Fun fact, they knowing made all of their end users guilty of patent infringement, meaning that if you use Gaikai, you are also guilty.

Edit2: Folding@home accomplices are also guilty of this, as they borrow your GPU to run several instances of simulated protein folding. Can't cure any diseases if it infringes on these guys patents, haha. They can't claim infringement and protect their patent if they don't defend it from everyone who is doing it afterall.